Mesudiye Village biography
Mehmet Cankara
1897 Ottoman-Greek War Cavalry (1878 Rumelia – 25 Jun 1952 Mesudiye)
Mesudiye's earliest documented soldier — served as cavalry in the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War, before the Karabağlar's 1907 migration to Karaman.
Born in Rumelia in 1878, Mehmet Cankara fought in the brief Ottoman-Greek War of 1897 as cavalry — at age 19. The Karabağlar community was still in Bulgarian Rumelia at the time; the family did not migrate to Anatolia until 1907.
Mehmet Cankara is the village's earliest documented soldier, predating the WWI veterans by nearly two decades. He died in Mesudiye in 1952, having lived to see the village he co-founded grow from 94 households to several hundred residents.
The Cankara family produced İbrahim Cankara (muhtar 1963), and was central to the 1980s Mesudiyespor football club roster (Halil Cankara in management).
Related pages
- • Full Turkish biography page with photos and detailed story
- • All 11 biographies
- • Deutsche Version